Page 4 of Loving the Liar

Marie… Mandy… M.M…

“Mindy!” I finally say with a bright smile on my face. “How are you? How’s GLC?”

She blushes when stopping in front of me, putting a strand of hair behind her ear. “You remember my name.”

“Of course I remember your name, silly.” I tap her shoulder playfully. “What’s up?”

“Well, GLC is organizing a huge back-to-school life-size game of Clue, and I was wondering if maybe you could attend?”

She hands me a flyer.

Gameboard Lovers Club invites you to solve a crime!

I rack my brain to find a valid excuse not to attend when I spot the date. I’ve got nothing against Mindy and her club. I just would rather be with my friends. The mask has to come off at some point, and I can’t exhaust myself being the queen bee every single moment of every day.

“Aw, Mindy. I’m sorry. I’m going to the Save Lives Today fundraiser that evening. They’re doing a night of first aid training.”

Her shoulders depleting makes guilt pinch my stomach, and my hand comes to scratch my upper right thigh through the material of my skirt.

“I’m really sorry. I can’t be everywhere at once. But here, let me help.” I pull my phone out of my bag, stand closer to her, and put the flyers next to both our heads.

“Smile!” I say cheerily.

Snapping a picture of us, I put it on my social media story.

Come solve a murder with @SFU_GameboardLC this Thursday night! *lips emoji*

“There you go.”

She looks down at me from her tall height to my short one. “Oh my god, Ella. Thank you so much. You’re the best.”

“No worries. I gotta go. Love you.”

I don’t even wait for her answer before striding through the hallway that leads to the library. The heels of my knee-high boots click against the marble floor as I enter, earning me a death stare from Mrs. Davis. As I walk past her counter, I send her a wink. That woman is too young to be so salty.

I know where my girls are sitting because no one would dare take the table we’ve declared as ours. Or theirs, I guess.

Jogging to them, I slap my hand on Alex’s book as I whisper excitedly, “I fucked Professor Reeves.”

Two pairs of eyes widen, both with shock, but one with proud mischief burning in her emerald gaze.

“Hell yes. He’s so hot,” Peach says, fanning her face dramatically.

“Oh my god, Ella.” The chastising comes from Alex, my shyer, more of a rule-follower friend. “You could get in so much trouble for this.”

“I know?—”

“Wait.” Peach puts her hand on mine. “Did you fuck him…or did he fuck you?”

“Peach,” Alex huffs. “Seriously?” She rubs her blonde hairline with the pad of her index finger a little too hard, bringing a pink tinge to her forehead. “This is so bad. Even for you, Ella. If this gets out…your popularity won’t save you. Reputation…poof.” She opens her hand in front of her face, mocking an explosion.

I roll my eyes, feigning nonchalance even though the only thing that makes me me is my popularity.

Tapping her fingers impatiently on the back of my hand, Peach insists. “Did you? Or did he?”

“If anyone finds out, he’ll get fired. You’ll get expelled. Imagine what your dad would say.”

My dad is the reason I ended up sleeping with my criminal justice professor for a grade that would save my spot in his class in my third year. If he hadn’t forced me to change my major from my passion to something I’ve never wanted to do in my life, I might not be in this situation right now. My dream was to get into Juilliard. I worked my ass off for it, attended Stoneview’s tough dance school, and put every single ounce of energy and passion I had into it. But I didn’t get in, and while my dad let me take dance for the first year at SFU, he deemed my dream too useless to keep going. Mid-year last year, he forced me to change major to something more useful. Goodbye dance, hello law.

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